Do You Want to Build a Unicorn?
by TotalGamer98
Summary: Ten years after Asura's demise, Stein's living a comfortable life with his new family. But inner storms threaten to spill over, forcing the doctor to harsh measures to protect those he loves. (This is set in the animeverse. There simply aren't enough Stein-centered fics out there, so I thought I'd contribute. :D One-shot.)


***I disclaim* I own not Soul Eater, or Stein and Medusa would totally have kissed and not have been interrupted by Sid. There are multiple reasons why I wished that guy would've stayed dead, but I'll save that rant for another day.**

**This accidentally had a lot of influence from "Frozen" (I don't own that either), as my stories tend to wander away from me. If you want to get the mood, listen to "Dark Side" by Kelly Clarkson and "Say Something" by Great Big World while reading. It's what I listened to while writing and I gave myself feels. ;)**

**TotalGamer98 presents to you;**

_**Do You Want To Build A Unicorn?**_

* * *

Ten years. Has it really been that long? That's what they all said. A full ten years after the final defeat of Asura, and much has changed in my life and those of others.

Most importantly, there's Maddie. Short for Madison. That ball of boundless energy rolled up into the form of a seven-year-old who seems to be an odd genetic combination of both her parents. She has my eyes, but she inherited her mother's blonde locks. Her resemblance to us extends past her physical appearance, however, as she shares Marie's love of color and decoration. She adores makeup and bows as well, but that's where her likeness to her mother ends.

She likes to keep a black bow on the left side of her head and pretend it's "Daddy's bolt", and take her mother's makeup pencil and use it to make stitches across her face.

I know we share our laugh, as well. On the morning I discovered this, I was in my lab and she was watching something she evidently found amusing upon the television. As I dissected the unfortunate duck on the table before me, my wedding ring was already covered in blood. I never took it off; it was to always remind me that I had a family to protect, to stay sane for. It had slipped off once or twice during my experiments, but I always dug into the specimen and relentlessly probed for it until I found and placed it was safely on my finger once again. It was the most important piece of metal in the world to me.

Marie propped open the lab's door that afternoon.

"Stein, what have you done to our daughter?" My wife sighed in exasperation. "She laughs like a madwoman."

I picked my head up from the mallard's carcass and listened. My daughter's formerly small voice was letting out manic laughter that would rival mine. I couldn't help but stiffen. I lived, and still live, in the constant fear that she's inherited my madness.

"Turn off the TV and calm her down. Or turn on something sad, just get her to stop," I said.

Marie frowned. "Stein, it was a joke. I thought it was kind of precocious," She stated. "She inherited your laugh. Isn't it cute?"

I shook my head swiftly, getting up and making my way out the door and into the living room.

"No," I told her sternly, "It's not precocious," My palms still covered with duck blood, I switched off the TV. Maddie was sitting on the couch, eating popcorn. Her mouth hung open as she stared at me.

"Daddy…" She whimpered, clutching her large brown cat plush that sat on the couch next to her. "Why'd you turn off the TV? I wanna watch Tiny Toons!" Her pale green eyes were reproachful of me. I looked down at her sternly.

"I don't want to hear that noise again," I snapped. "Is that clear?!" I shouted. Maddie's eyes widened, unused to this from me. She sniffed once, eyes tearing up, before she jumped up and hugged Marie.

"Mommy, Daddy's being mean!" She cried. Marie's one visible eye glared at me.

"She was just laughing!" She yelled. "She thought her show was funny and she got excited! You can't ban our child from laughing!"

The anger drained from my face. I had upset her. I hadn't meant to; I was just afraid. I had heard that laughter and been reminded of my own madness, and I had become frightened for the one child I cared for more than my students. I knelt down next to her, sighing.

"Maddie. I'm sorry," I murmured. She turned and fixed me in her gaze, so identical to mine. I quickly ran over lists in my head of how to make her happy again. "Do you want to help me in my lab? I'm dissecting a duck," I held up my bloodied hands, "And there's lots of blood."

Maddie's instantly lit up. "I can help dissect a ducky?" She was suddenly beaming as she rushed into the lab and grabbed her special lab coat, which was really part of a Halloween costume she had decorated with fabric paint to make it look like mine.

I stood, following her, but I heard Marie murmur quietly, "Stein, if you're so afraid of her laugh, why do you feed her love for dissections?"

I paused at the door. I couldn't answer that question easily, so I remained silent and closed the lab door. The reason for my actions, which I would never admit to anyone, was the simple fact that I enjoyed the bonding time I gained with my daughter over a common interest and a decapitated goat. But I was beginning to regret my desire to spend this type of time with my daughter, and I brought up the subject a few weeks later. Or I tried to.

"Whatcha dissectin', Daddy?" She inquired in that innocent voice of hers, peeking over at the table. "Ooooh, a sea turtle!" She clapped. "Can I have the shell? Can I, can I?"

I sighed. "You know, Maddie, maybe it's not so great that you continue to…" I was going to say "continue to dissect things with me", but her begging face cut me off. Her large eyes and stuck-out lip were irresistible, and I couldn't help but smile at her. She's extremely spoiled because of that face.

"Sure, you can have the shell," I promised, carefully cutting it off and being sure not to damage it. I handed it to her once it was off, and I could see her face light up.

"Thank you thank you thank you thank you!" She exclaimed, jumping up and down and rushing back to her room. I couldn't help but smile, but then I remembered something imperative.

"Maddie, I didn't get the chance to clean it out!" I shouted after her, right before her mother discovered the bloodstains our daughter was trailing on the new carpet.

"FRANKEN!" She shouted. She only used my first name when she was livid with me, and I decided to stay in my lab until she calmed down.

I cleaned the shell out soon after, removing all the blood and skin. Basically, everything Maddie wanted to keep. But she accepted it after a brief tantrum, and took to admiring the pattern on the shell instead. A few days later, she was dragging me by the hand to her room.

"I want you to see, Daddy!" She giggled one afternoon, while Marie was out shopping. "I want you to see what I did with the pretty turtle shell!"

"All right, Maddie," I mumbled as I was towed by my daughter. However, the slightest of smiles pulled at my lips as she held my large, pale hand in her small and vibrant one.

With her free hand, the seven-year-old threw open the door, revealing a very purple room with walls covered with papers of hand-drawn unicorns. She adores mythical mutants, apparently. I can't see the "wonder" in them at all. I could easily genetically create one if I so wished; adding a horn to a horse would be simple for a scientist of my caliber.

She wouldn't let go of my hand until I stood right in front of her dresser and looked at the shell upon it. "It's my secret treasure place!" She giggled, reaching her hand inside what was formerly a turtle and pulling out a green plastic necklace. She tried to loop it around my head, but it got stuck on my bolt. Rather than take it off because it wouldn't fit, however, she just let it hang there.

"And don't tell Mommy, but I've got jellybeans in here too," She whispered, showing me a handful of stale bean-shaped candies. "I saved 'em from Easter. Mommy says they're not good anymore and to not eat 'em, but I like 'em crunchy!"

I sighed. "It's 'them', Maddie. Not 'em'," I corrected her. She simply giggled.

"That's what my teacher says, too."

I smiled at her, ruffling her blonde hair. "Speaking of your teacher, how are you doing in school?" I asked. The smile dropped from her face for a moment.

"Well, the teachers say I'm 'violent', but I don't know what that means," She sighed. "But they say it like it's bad. And they tell me I should stop trying to dissect Mr. Mittens, the class hamster," She mumbled. I frowned.

"Maddie, let's not dissect anything that's not at home, okay?" I sighed. She nodded sadly, but her face quickly gained a smile once again.

"But my art teacher says I'm great!" She beamed, grabbing a paper off of her dresser and showing it to me. "I was supposed to draw my favorite animal, and she said it had a pretty pattern!"

I stiffened as I looked at the drawing in her hand. Upon the paper was a crude but recognizable drawing of a black snake with a yellow arrow pattern. "M-maddie," I stuttered. "Why did you draw it like that?" Fear was washing over me. Had she inherited my madness enough to obtain shards of my memories of Medusa?

My girl looked at her paper. "I thought arrows were pretty. And the color black," She smiled innocently. "I like black! Hey, can you imagine how pretty blood would be…"

I stared at her. "Don't you DARE complete that sentence!"

"If blood was black?"

I don't know what came over me. I had been watching Maddie, shaking with fear, and at the next moment she was crying and holding ripped fragments of paper. "Why did you do that, Daddy?!" She screamed through her tears.

I towered over her crumpled form, monotone words coming slowly from my lips. "Did what?"

Her lip quivered as her pale green eyes gazed into mine. "You ripped up my pretty picture!" She cried, holding up the torn pieces of what was formerly her snake illustration. I had destroyed my daughter's work in a fit of rage.

I backed up slowly, staring in horror at what I had done. Maddie looked up at me, sniffing as tears continued to stream down her face.

"Stein, what's going on?!"

I whipped around to see Marie in the doorway, holding a grocery bag in one hand and the doorknob in the other. "I heard Maddie crying when I came in the house. What did you do?"

I flinched. It hurt that instead of assuming that I had gone to comfort our daughter, Marie instantly assumed that I was guilty. I clenched my fists before I bolted. Shoving past my wife, I knew I couldn't stay in there. I needed to be alone.

The door to my lab slammed shut as I locked it behind me. I panted, running a hand through my hair, trying to process what I had just done. Why did I tear my daughter's work to pieces? Was I going mad again? And why was she drawing snakes that so resembled a witch I had been trying for a decade to forget?

"She inherited your madness, Stein."

I inhaled sharply through my teeth as if I was in pain. "Get OUT." I hissed. "You're dead. Get out of my head, get out of my lab, get out of my house; just get OUT."

Her alluring voice tsked. "That's rude. Sorry, professor, but you're stuck with me. I'm just a memory, but your madness will always keep this shard of me alive in your mind," Her soft hand tilted my head upward to look her in the face. I glared into Medusa's eyes.

"I hate you," I spat. "With every fiber of my soul."

She chuckled. "You might. But your madness loves me," She purred, running a hand through my silver hair. "And I'm just the voice of logic right now, relaying the obvious. And your daughter obviously inherited your insanity."

I glared daggers at her. "You don't know that," I growled, to which she simply chuckled again.

"Well, let's look at the facts. She's obsessed with dissection, not to mention blood, and draws pictures of me. And since I'm a fragment of your madness, it's quite possible that my very presence is in her insane genes," She smiled cruelly. That woman then snaked her arms around my neck, bringing her lips to my ear. "Let's face it, Stein. You're not cut out for family life. You only bought Marie's engagement ring because Spirit was playing matchmaker and pushed you into it. You played along, deciding it was for the best, and married your partner. But you're still doing just that; playing."

My eyes narrowed at her. "What are you talking about?" I muttered.

She looked into my eyes, her gaze no longer taunting. "You are acting the part of a husband and father simply to deny what's going on backstage," She poked my head. "It's all a distraction from your madness. But now that you see the consequences of having a child," She brought her face close to mine, letting our foreheads touch as her dark grin formed upon her face once again. "What will you do now?"

I blinked and the vision was gone. There was no Medusa; she had been dead for years. I continued to remind myself of that as I sat down at the empty examination table and slumped over the back of my lab chair. Although she had been a figment of my imagination, the Snake Witch's words still echoed through my head.

"_What will you do now?_"

I twisted my bolt, trying to clear my head.

"_What should I do now? If I come in contact with Maddie at all, it might encourage her madness,_" I thought. "_I don't want her to suffer like I did._"

Horrible childhood memories resurfaced, showing me the reason why I had adopted a blunt coldness towards the outside world.

_Small hands tried to wriggle free from their hold in the straightjacket. "Please!" The boy's voice cried. "Please, I just wanna see Mommy and Daddy!"_

_Cold, emotionless eyes gazed down at him from beyond the bars. "Do you not understand why you're here? You're insane. You have no parents to go back to because you stabbed them to death."_

_He shook, sniffing, before he burst into sobs. "I'm sorry!" He sobbed. "I d-didn't mean to!"_

"'_Sorry' is not going to cut it," The man's voice came again. "We need to keep you in here until you're more stable. Sorry, kid. You can't go home."_

"_But I'm totally stable!" The silver-haired boy shouted. Slowly, however, his sobbing began to transform into crazed laughter. "I'm TOTALLY SANE! Can't you see how SANE I am?!"_

_The man on the other side of the bars only shook his head before closing the door, leaving bars, a door, and heavily padded walls between the child and the outside world. The boy just continued to laugh._

"_What, you're leaving me? I was TALKING to YOU! I wanna talk about blood! The blood that I made pour down Daddy's shirt was so PRETTY!_"

I shook my head swiftly, pushing the memories away. I couldn't do that to Maddie. She would never become that.

I resolved then to lose all contact with my daughter. I wasn't going to push her into madness; she wouldn't be shoved into a straightjacket and thrown in a mental institution at the age of eleven. And If I had to stay far away from her to make that happen, so be it.

I made good on my promise to myself. I spent the week at the school, even spending the night. I stayed in my lab all day on the weekends, away from her. At first Maddie knocked on my door, begging to be let in and help with my experiments, but she stopped soon. Then she simply asked that I come out and play with her, but that stopped quickly as well when she realized it was futile.

After my first month of isolation, Marie confronted me as I went to bed, long after Maddie had gone to sleep.

"Stein, did I do something wrong?"

I turned to face my wife. She looked sad, watching only the floor as she stood there in her yellow floral pajamas. "Is that why you're avoiding me?"

My eyes widened as I quickly rushed to her, hugging her. Perhaps this behavior was a bit strange for me, but I had changed upon becoming a husband and father. "No, Marie," I murmured in her ear. "You've done nothing wrong. I didn't mean to hurt you."

She wrapped her arms around my waist slowly, but then clutched me tightly. "Then what's going on, Stein?" She whispered. "You've shut your family out."

I pulled back, gazing into her single golden eye. "I never meant to shut you out, Marie," I kissed her gently. "And I'm so sorry for doing that. But I can't be around Maddie."

My wife still looked hurt and confused. "Why not? She's really sad, Stein. She thinks you hate her."

I hung my head. "Then tell her I love her when you see her next."

"Why can't you?" Marie asked. "She wants to see her Daddy so badly, Stein."

I sighed, walking away from her and over to my bed. "Because I'm afraid I'll be a bad influence, and she'll go mad."

Marie sat next to me. "So that's what this is all about? Our daughter isn't mad just because she drew a snake in art class…"

"It's not just that!" I snapped at her, and she shied back. I sighed again, sliding into bed and pulling the covers over my shoulders as I turned and faced the wall. "Sorry. But I've read the signs, and I don't want my daughter going mad. There's too much of a risk," I told her.

My wife didn't say another word, and I continued to face away from her. I could feel the weight in the bed shift as she lay down, but I stayed staring at the wall as I placed my glasses on the bedside table. I normally didn't sleep on my side, as my bolt dug into the pillow and made me uncomfortable, but I didn't want to face Marie at the moment. She would never understand what I was going through.

And so the isolation continued. I resolved to see Marie more often, but she was still upset with me, and every time I tried to talk to her, she'd bring up the subject of Maddie. I would try to change the subject, but she wouldn't stop and I'd have to go back into my lab and seclude myself again just to stay away from the conversation.

But even if I wanted to, I couldn't deny the effect her words had on me. I found myself thinking of Maddie often. I wanted to hear her laugh, to see her smile. I wanted to see if she had painted the sea turtle shell, if she had eaten all of last Easter's jellybeans. I wanted to see her curl up with her huge stuffed cat that she claimed was really a forest spirit named Totoro, and I wanted to tuck her in and kiss her goodnight. I wanted her to draw me a picture of her favorite unicorn.

I was startled to find wet drips forming on the table below my face. Rubbing my eyes, I discovered wet marks on my sleeve as well.

I had been crying?

I sighed, leaning back in my chair. Why was I crying? Why would the stone-cold Dr. Franken Stein be shedding tears? Did I really… Miss Maddie that much?

There was a quiet knock at the door. I turned to look over in that direction, confused. Marie was out, wasn't she?

"Hey," Came a soft voice. "I know you don't like me anymore, but… It's snowing."

My eyes widened, staring at the door. Of course I liked her, more than that. I _loved _her. Why would she talk to me now? Was it simply because her childish excitement was triggered by the fact that it was snowing?

"Do you wanna build a snowman?"

I didn't move. I wasn't sure how to react to this. How could she still want to talk to me after all I had done to her? The point had been to shut her away.

"It doesn't have to be a snowman."

I was silent for a moment. I desired so badly to jump up, throw open that door and embrace her, and then follow her into the snow. But I couldn't. The risk of sharing madness was too great. Trying to sound bored, I turned back around to my current experiment and told her, "Go away, Maddie."

"Okay… Bye." Came the dejected reply. Her voice sounded so hurt as I heard her footsteps retreating. I didn't want it to bother me, but it did. It bothered me terribly.

"_It's for the best,_" I told myself. "_She can't go mad if I'm not there to influence her._ _She can't go mad like me._"

"_But it wouldn't be like you,_" A voice suddenly cut through my thoughts. "_Your parents didn't understand your madness, but you can understand hers. You can help her in ways that they couldn't._"

My scalpel dropped to the floor as realization began hitting me.

"_Does it matter if she goes mad? You can be there. You can understand her. She's not like you. She has a father who knows what she'd be going through and could help her through it._"

I jerked up from my seat, the wheeled chair rolling away in the force I had used to stand so swiftly.

"_If you stop isolating yourself, you can comfort her._"

I rushed to the computer, swiftly typing in my search.

"_You can be there for Maddie._"

I smiled when my search was successful. I was going to ask for Maddie's forgiveness, and I was going to build her something much better than a snowman to say I was sorry.

It took a few more days on my own, and a lot of secrecy, to get the trailer here with my test subject and to begin the experiments. However, it was quickly complete. I couldn't help but grin; I was ecstatic. This was going to be absolutely perfect for my little girl.

I knocked on Maddie's door the morning after it was complete. I could hear her groggy footsteps going to the door before tired hands pried it open.

"Mommy…" She yawned, rubbing her eyes. "Why are you waking me up, it's not a school day…" She looked up at me with bleary eyes, and it took her a few moments to process who was standing before her. Her pale green gaze widened as she stared at me. "D-daddy?" She whispered, tears beginning to form in her eyes. I nodded.

"Yes, Maddie. I'm sor…" My apology was cut short as she hugged my legs and began sobbing.

"I missed you, Daddy! I missed you so much!" She bawled. "You didn't love me anymore so I couldn't see you, but I love you so much!" She cried.

I stared at her, and then kneeled down to her level to look her in the eye. "Maddie," I murmured, wrapping my arms around her and letting her cry into my shoulder. "Maddie, I love you more than you'll ever know. I'm so sorry I wouldn't talk to you. I was afraid of something that might've happened, but it won't."

She sniffed. "Why not?" She whimpered. I smiled a little.

"Because I'm your Daddy, and I'll help you whenever you need it," I told her. "And I won't let anything hurt you."

She smiled a little, but then I heard her gasp as he gazed over my shoulder. I chuckled a little as I pulled away, but she didn't move as she stared, absolutely dumbfounded at the sight behind me. I turned to look at it. "Pretty tame, isn't he? He's been standing there this whole time. Of course, he can't live indoors all the time. We'll have to build a pen for him."

Maddie only nodded slowly as she walked up to the result of my week's work.

"You…" She whispered, "You found a UNICORN?!" She screamed with joy as she hugged the creature before her. I smiled and nodded.

"Well, sort of," I chuckled upon seeing her happy. The small white horse I had mutated to grow a horn from its forehead stared at me with blank eyes.

"Stein?" Marie yawned, emerging from our room. "What's going on?" Her eye suddenly widened as her gaze found the 'unicorn'. "Is that a…"

"His name is Test Tube!" Maddie grinned. I laughed for the first time in months.


End file.
